Category: India & Bangladesh

I am in a creative non-fiction group as a part of my housing assignment, and this week, we had to imitate a style of non-fiction. Basically: take your own story and use someone else’s format to tell the story, so here is mine about an incident in India that I don’t know if I’ve told. Enjoy 🙂

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Broken tiled sidewalks with pits full of trash, always flooded and dangerously slippery from the monsoon.

Uneven pavement, bumpy from the the inefficient government workers who lack skill, or pay, or both.

Ten-rupee road-side stall pani puri, made delicious from the dirty tamarind-infused water that came from the nearby polluted river.

A bare-bottomed 6 month old child, whose parents sit on broken tile, making balloon animals to sell to no one.

The game of real-live Frogger you must play to cross the street, just to get to Papa John’s for a slice of American pizza.

Two boys, painted blue, carrying fake bows, fake arrows and dressed as Lord Krishna. Begging for $1 American, please, blocking you on the broken sidewalk, grabbing you so that you call for help from a friend and call for unwanted attention from locals.

A friend, ignoring you. Laughing.

Locals, not ignoring you. Laughing.

You, pushing away two painted 8 year old beggars. Laughing.

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So essentially this recounts the time two beggar children dressed as Krishna came to beg from me. They were funny and aggressive and honestly, endearing; but it was also sad that these kids who should be learning maths and English were painted blue and wandering looking for money in the middle of the day. And it was sad that I just wanted to pass them for a slice of pizza and some breadsticks. I copied a format of a story called “Things That Appear Ugly Or Troubling But Upon Closer Inspection Are Beautiful.” I tried to do what the author did by using phrases of images and by presenting the sad but building it to the funny. Don’t think I did it as well as the original but I thought it was a nice little piece to share 🙂